BENNINGTON — A South Stream Road landlord was arraigned on Monday on a misdemeanor charge of calling in a false alarm after police said he falsely accused one of his tenants of putting her head through a wall and causing damage and destruction to her Beech Street apartment.

Thomas R. Dwyer Jr., 57, pleaded innocent to the charge in Bennington criminal court Monday. He was released without bail.

In an affidavit, Cpl. Andy Hunt, of the Bennington Police Department, said Dwyer called police on Feb. 27 around 3:40 p.m. Based on Dwyer’s description, three police officers and the Bennington Rescue Squad were dispatched to the apartment.

However, the tenant told police she didn’t put her head through the wall. She said there was a hole in the wall put there by her ex-boyfriend three weeks previously and that she had reported it to Dwyer the day after it happened. On Feb. 27, she told police, she was having a problem because there was a raccoon in the ceiling of her apartment.

Dwyer told police he had been in the basement of the building and heard a loud bang. He said the tenant told him about the raccoon but he didn’t believe her. Dwyer admitted that when he saw the size and shape of the hole in the wall, he “assumed” she had put her head through the wall.

Hunt said he told Dwyer he was being charged with providing a false alarm, and Dwyer then denied telling police his tenant put her head through the wall until he was told the call was recorded.